Jasper Francis Cropsey (American, 1823–1900)
Blasted Tree
INV-1296
Jasper Francis Cropsey (American, 1823–1900)1850
Blasted Tree
Jasper Francis Cropsey (American, 1823–1900) →paintingamerican arts
Date
1850
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
43.2 × 35.6 cm (17 × 14 in.)
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Location
Chicago, IL
Credit
Gift of Jamee J. and Marshall Field
Like his fellow Hudson River School landscapists, Jasper Cropsey sketched in nature and then combined motifs he had observed into his compositions in his New York studio. In the late 1840s and early 1850s he traveled frequently to the Catskills, where he produced this oil sketch. Here, the gnarled trunk and branches of the weather-beaten tree offered the artist interesting variations of color, tone, and line. Cropsey often included such old trees in his paintings in emulation of Thomas Cole, whom he greatly admired. In Cropsey’s work, as in that of Cole, the subject introduces a sense of time and history into the scene, as well as conveying the sublime power of nature.
Also notable
Works in the same vein
Niagara Falls in Winter
Jasper Francis Cropsey American, 1823–1900
Untitled (Portrait of a Woman with Two Children)
Samuel Van Loan American, born English, 1823-1900
Untitled (Portrait of a Man at a 3/4 Angle)
John Jabez Edwin Mayall (American, born English, 1810-1901) and Samuel Van Loan (American, born English, 1823-1900)
